How much time do you spend each week sitting in your audio system's sweet spot listening to music?

How much time do you spend each week sitting in your audio system's sweet spot listening to music?

0-5 hours

32% (88 votes)

5-10 hours

30% (83 votes)

10-15 hours

21% (58 votes)

15-20 hours

8% (23 votes)

20-30 hours

5% (14 votes)

30-40 hours

2% (6 votes)

More than 40 hours

1% (4 votes)

Total votes: 276

Reader Samo Jecnik, from Ljubljana, Slovenia, has a simple question for audiophiles: "I'd like to know how much time per week <I>Stereophile</I> readers <I>listen</I> to the music on their <I>main</I> systems. I mean the time they're sitting in the sweet spot."

I have only a modest audio setup consisting of a Kenwood 2090 recever, four Infinity Composition Overture 1s and a CC-3 center speaker, and a Cerwin-Vega sub. It may just be my setup, but the sound is just weak anywhere else in the room. This is the only way that I can enjoy my music's full audio spectrum.

The first thing I do when I get back from work is to switch on my hi-fi components. Then it's straight to the shower. My showertime is also the hi-fi's warmup time. After my shower, the first CD slots in and runs continuously for an hour or so while I see to other household stuff, like talking to the wife . . . and, of course, dinner. Sweet-spot time commences at about 2000 hours and runs till about 2 hours later, when its time for "Age of Empires." (For those who don't know AOE, it's the hottest computer game of all time.) But the music still goes on, even when I'm not listening in, as invariably there's always some component or cable that requires running in or re-running in. I switch everything off only at around midnight, before bedtime. This is my routine except when I'm not at home.

Sad to say, most weeks I spend more time listening to music on my car stereo than on the big rig at home. Keeping up with family and work commitments and playing in a community orchestra leave me far too little time to sit and listen to music at home.

None, 20 month old rules the house. The couches were pushed against the walls and the speakers were turned backwards to aviod probing fingers. There is no more sweet spot, although it feels great not to listen critically sometimes. I turn the speakers around when it is time to listen. Many times I listen at night with the volume way down low so junior (and wife) can sleep.